Minari and a Dundas Travelogue
The Churn for Friday, May 2, 2025
In this week’s edition of The Heavy Table’s Churn newsletter, we visit the heavily hyped new spot Minari and make our way to Dundas for some good food and a great deal of coffee. Heavy Table exists solely because of the support of subscribers like you - thanks for making our work telling the stories of food and drink in the Upper Midwest possible.
THE ENDING AND REBIRTH OF THE WORLD, A COOKBOOK STORY
You may have guessed that I read, collect, buy, and otherwise interact with a hell of a lot of cookbooks. My kitchen is piled deep with them. As is my bedroom, my tiny home office, and just about any other flat surface in my home. What you might not have guessed is that my cookbook obsession has brought me into the jaws of one of the worst bits of modern life - and also led me to one of the bright sparks of hope.
First, the jaws. It’s sometimes difficult to avoid feeling as though everything is getting steadily worse. In the tech world - which, let’s face it, makes up a good chunk of the world in general these days - it’s called “enshittification,” and the term has been the word of the year for at least two different linguistic organizations.
Reliable features fade or get gunked up with functionality nobody asked for. Prices creep northwards. Stuff you could buy becomes stuff you have to subscribe to. AI and touchscreens appear where they were not asked for, and are genuinely counterproductive.
In short: things get worse.
Amazon.com is one of the biggest, brightest, most outstanding examples of things getting enshittified. For many years, it was where I bought many if not most of my books. It was, after all, a revolutionary platform that literally brought the world to our doorsteps and made getting just about anything easy, fast, and reliable. In recent years of course, it has pivoted from its globe-straddling success and begun steadily making things worse for workers, customers, and vendors as it converts its market share into cold, hard cash. One of the casualties of Amazon’s rise: the neighborhood independent bookstore - or so it seemed.
Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis does business in the shadow of the burned out Third Precinct. I go there regularly - maybe “constantly” is a better word - because its curation of cookbooks and other culinary works is absolutely fantastic. But the terrific Japanese literature and manga in translation, thoughtfully arranged new book tables, and overall vibe would bring me through the door even if they didn’t have a single volume by Julia Child.
These days, when I want to order a book about just about anything, I do it through Moon Palace - it’s not noticeably slower or more expensive than Amazon, and my money is supporting a business just up the street.
In theory, this is exactly the sort of place the Amazons of the world should kill stone dead, and quickly. But I was there last weekend for Independent Bookstore Day, and the place was absolutely thronged. It was difficult to navigate the aisles, what with all the customers trying to buy armloads of books. Outside, two other independent book vendors (the Paperback Exchange and Babycake’s bookmobile) had lines to get through their doors.
And this isn’t a weird blip on a once-a-year book-buying holiday; independent bookstores in general are booming. Even Barnes and Noble has bounced back and is expanding now that it has a bookseller at the helm - instead of letting marketing drive the shelves, they’re letting people who love books sell books to other people who love books.
Not every problem can be solved by re-weaving the connections that tie our communities together - there are a lot of ponderous dragons out there that can only be slain on a national or global level. But if you’re the kind of person who loves dive into a good cookbook but have fallen into an Amazon habit in recent years, there are local people who are selling what you’re looking for, too - with a lot more curation and love, too. – James Norton
This newsletter is underwritten by Becca Dilley Photography
Look, summer happens fast. Portraits can happen fast, too. That’s why I offer portrait sessions that are dead simple – when the weather is good, I’ll be at Minnehaha Falls on Thursday nights. Book your session - it's easy to schedule or reschedule.
HEAVY TABLE’S HOT FIVE
#5 Hot Soup Pickle Pepper Soup at Cross Bridge Noodle | Minneapolis
Whittier has a new neighbor, Cross Bridge Noodle. Filling the vacant Bad Waitress slot on Nicolette and 26th, this new noodle shop hooked me with this wild description posted in their window: “Hot Sour Pickle Pepper Soup”. The soup itself came out in a giant stone bowl, still boiling, with a shocking bright yellow color. Don’t let that scare you off, though. The soup was delightfully spicy, with a good tang/sharpness from the pickle balanced by the broth's savor. You can choose from various proteins, noodle types, and ways to dress the soup up or down (ham, spring onions, quail egg, corn, sprouts, tofu, etc.). I went with the Crispy Chicken. Bring a friend because this quality noodle soup is a big meal that won’t starve your wallet, with the whole meal coming in at $20 with tip. – Eli Radtke
#4 Wonton Flip at Egg Flip/Sushi Flip | Minneapolis
At Malcolm Yards for lunch, I found myself in front of the brand-new Egg Flip/Sushi Flip counter. Talk about spoiled for choice! Their much-ballyhooed fluffy scrambled egg sammies on milk bread look truly tempting, but I opted for the filp side of the menu and chose the Wonton Flip. Billed as an appetizer, this is a well thought-out combo of crispy fried wontons stacked with ingredients that please the palate and the eye. Salmon sashimi and ruby red tobiko are balanced on sliced avocado and mango, layered over crabmeat salad and spicy tuna, and sauced with zigzags of spicy aioli and mellow brown sauce. The crunchy wontons provide good support and contrasting texture to the creaminess of the crab and tuna. Mango and avocado bring tart-sweet and buttery flavors, and raw salmon and roe add silky and salty to the party. – Jeanne Lakso
#3 Yakiniku Mountain at Gyu-Kaku | Minneapolis
In terms of appearance, the Yakiniku Mountain at Gyu-Kaku is one of the most unappealing things I’ve ever ordered in a restaurant. It’s a literal mound of thinly sliced raw steak, piled up like a primal sacrifice. When it’s on sale (as it was recently) it’s also 1.5 pounds of tasty steak for $41, which makes the restaurant’s grill-it-yourself deliciousness remarkably affordable. We’ve been gaming the system at Gyu-Kaku for months now, and the $30, ½ pound Harami in Secret Pot has been our secret weapon. No longer: Yakiniku Mountain is nearly three times as affordable, and it’s damn delicious. – James Norton
#2 Cardamom Twist at Sun Street Breads | Minneapolis
Is Solveig Tofte's sugar-and-spice-laced wonder the Twin Cities OG cardamom bun? Probably not, considering our cities' long history of Scandinavian bakers. But it's arguably the best. Available only on Sundays, Sun Street's cardamom twist is compellingly perfumed and lovely to look at, with a soft interior concealed by twirls of perfectly browned crust with barely caramelized sugar peeking out of the crevasses. Tofte has more than mastered breads and pastries, and this seemingly simple treat exemplifies the best ingredients combined with skill and love. – Jeanne Lakso
#1 Spring Pea Pancakes at Meritage | Saint Paul
If you’re dining at a first-class French restaurant, you want subtlety, and you want bold flavors, preferably both at once and somehow on top of one another, merci beaucoup. Meritage brings power and finesse all over the place and all the time, but my most recent favorite example are the Spring Pea Pancakes, a delicate little appetizer stack of tiny pancakes topped with creme fraiche and osetra caviar. The pancakes are soft, subtle, and vegetal in that light, gentle, absolutely spring-inflected kind of way; the caviar has just the right salty kick and playful texture to take this two- or three-bite morsel to the next level. – James Norton
STREET REPORT
The effortlessly sleek fusion project known as Minari is built to last.
By Stacy Brooks
On a recent episode of the podcast On with Kara Swisher, former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter mused about the difference between a hot restaurant and a cool one. According to Carter, hot restaurants can maintain a buzz until the 18-month mark, when the shine abruptly dulls and fickle crowds flit on to the next thing. In contrast, cool restaurants stick around for years, providing a timeless experience that keeps guests returning again and again.
That framework of a hot versus cool restaurant was rattling around in my head when I sat down to a Friday dinner at Minari. Since it opened in November 2024 in Northeast’s former Erté & the Peacock Lounge space, the restaurant has been in heavy rotation among Twin Cities influencers and has garnered plenty of attention from local press. In part, that’s thanks to its pedigree—Minari is part of Daniel Del Prado’s restaurant group and is helmed by his mentee Chef Jeff Watson. According to the about page on the restaurant’s website, the menu draws on Chef Watson’s heritage and “blends Korean and East Asian influences with a dim sum twist.”
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